Every Conversation Starts With Hello
by Lyra Raine Sparrow
Summary: She never noticed him, at least not at first. That's what she thought he was. Just a parent watching all the kids. Or maybe an uncle. He looked like a crazy uncle.


_A: I thought it was about time I revisited Winnie and the doctor. Of course, every conversation, every friendship, starts with hello._

* * *

She never noticed him, at least not at first. There was a huge snowball fight in the park not too far from the little Colonial she called home in that tiny New York town. All of the neighborhood children were there, and their parents. That's what she thought he was. Just a parent watching all the kids.

Or maybe an uncle. He looked like a crazy uncle.

He was sitting on a bench with his long colorful scarf draped around him. She'd hidden behind that same bench clutching a imperfect snowball and constantly checking her surroundings. She was nothing if not thorough. He hadn't seen her either, so he nearly jumped when she stood up suddenly and sent that snowball past his head.

"Oh, hello," he says while chuckling, "Didn't see you there."

Winnie smiled up at him.

"I think that's the point. Now stop talking or someone will know I'm here," she says with a heavy dose of annoyance. She always was a little too sassy when she was little, but what little girl wasn't.

He just gave her a smile and turned back around to watch the rest of the kids dart from tree to tree to playground set. It was too long before he heard the high-pitched scream of Winnie getting hit.

"Aw man," she says as she walks around to the front of the bench. She pushes away accumulated snow before sitting on the other end of it.

"Does that mean you're out?"

She gives a sharp nod.

"Yeah, I was hit three times already. So now I have to sit on a bench until the new game starts." She frowns as she looks to him. "Can I share this bench with you?" she wonders.

He gives her a goofy smile and nods.

"Okay, thanks."

"What's your name?" he wonders.

"Winterlynn Serenity Mortensen. But everyone calls me Winnie. Except for my momma. She calls me Pooh Bear. That's my momma there," she says pointing to the red-haired woman standing alone and eyeing him curiously. "Well," she says drawing the word out, "she's not my real momma. But I call her my momma because she's the only momma I have. She has a funny accent like you. So does my daddy. Gracie's momma says she's a witch. But I know that's not true. Witches are evil and my momma's good. I told Gracie that she's not, but she said she saw her do magic. But Momma says she's not magic, that the Earth is magic and she just borrows the magic from the Earth."

He smiles broadly, "I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?" she wonders.

"Just the Doctor."

"Well, my doctor has two names; Doctor Tyler."

"Winterlynn!" a sweet voice calls from the other side of the park. "Come along, sweetie. Let's go have some hot cocoa with Daddy!"

Winnie smiles.

"I gotta go. Buh-bye, Doctor."

"Winnie," he calls before she gets too far, "How old are you?"

"I'm nine. I'll be ten next month."

"What year is it?"

She stares at him weirdly.

"1993, silly. Bit late in the year to ask."

"Okay, good. That's good."

She runs back to her mom and takes the woman's hand.

"Who was that, sweetie?" her mom questions.

"The Doctor," Winnie tells her.

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

* * *

She didn't see him again until she was eleven. The winter had been long forgotten. But he hadn't. Though she supposes it had something to do with the familiar scarf she'd gotten the Christmas she was ten. It was crazy big for her, but she wore it everywhere, and when it got too warm to wear it, she'd stuff it in her bag and carry it with her. It was her safety blanket.

Of course, her mother worried over it. Obsession with a stranger's scarf was never very good. But she'd kept her mouth shut because having the scarf meant Winnie no longer asked about her birth parents…

He looked different this time around. But she knew it was him somehow. He just sat in the park on that same bench in a slightly different manner.

It was still chilly enough out for her to continue wearing the scarf. It dragged behind her as she bounced over to the bench.

"Can I share this bench with you?" she wondered with a tiny smirk on her lips.

He nods in assent and she sits down, pulling the scarf to rest in her lap.

"Okay, thanks."

"That's a nice scarf."

She smiles brightly. "You gave it to me."

"Did I?" he wonders.

She nods, "In a past life."

"Oh really?"

"The one before this one," she tells him. "But after the one who wore it."

She gives him a hug when he doesn't say anything in reply.

"I think momma wants to leave," she says. "We have to go visit dad's family in England. I've never been to England." She glances at him. "Is it nice?"

"You'll love it," the Doctor tells her before she runs off to find her mom.

* * *

The next time she sees him, she's fourteen. And he's different again. She's in London with her mum visiting family again. She still wears the scarf because she still hopes to see him again.

This time she's walking with her older cousin. She almost doesn't notice him, to bothered with the conversation she's taking part in.

"I mean, it's not like we snogged or anything, I just flirted with him a bit, but mum's acting like it's the end of the world. I mean honestly? I'm fourteen, I should be allowed to start dating. Not that I would want to, there's no one cute in my school. Besides even if they were, they're all too rude for me. Americans," she scoffs.

Her cousin shares a laugh.

"Says the girl that's lived in America most of her life."

Winnie shrugs, "Yeah, but I'm completely Scotch."

"I think you've had too much scotch."

"I don't drink, Molly" she says seriously. "And I have no plans to either." She throws her thumb over her shoulder. "An' that back there is the prime example- oof."

Molly laughs. "You might want to watch where you're going, Winnie. You might end up having to drink the pain away."

"This wasn't there a moment ago," Winnie says placing her hand gently on the blue box.

"Oh, yes. Because giant blue police call boxes totally just appear out of no where."

Winnie glares at her 21-year old cousin.

"Tell me you saw it before I ran into it?" she snaps with a hint of mirth.

"Well, no… but-"

"Ha! See, it did just appear out of no where!"

"That shouldn't be possible," Molly counters.

"A lot of things shouldn't be possible, yet they are. 'I try to believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast,' Lewis Carroll. Logic and reason dictate that I shouldn't be able to do this," she says as she holds up her hand to show the tiny flame resting in her palm. "And history says I should be burnt at the stake. But yet here I am."

"Here you are."

But Molly and Winnie glance up at the man who'd stepped out of the police box. He had his arms crossed and was staring at the younger of the cousins.

"Um, sorry," Molly says. "Do we know you?"

"Doctor?" Winnie asked. She giggles loudly not needing the assent and jumps to hug him. "You look like a history professor."

"My dear Winnie," the Doctor says wrapping his arms around her. "It's been so long."

"Winnie," Molly says tugging on her cousin's arm. "You can't just hug random strangers."

But the embracing pair ignore the pleading in her voice.

"You're still so young," the Doctor says as he pulls away. "So young and so naive." A solemn smile crosses his lips. "I'll be back, Winnie. Promise, just a few minutes." He pulls out his pocket watch. "Just a few minutes. Five minutes," he promises. "I won't be gone long."

GIving her another hug, he pushes her back beside Molly and slips inside the police box once again.

"Five minutes," he repeats, "I promise."

"_Promissiones sunt divisa_," Winnie calls to him.

The door shuts and an engine starts to wheeze. The box is gone a moment later.

"Who was that?" Molly says.

"The Doctor," Winnie replies. "Just the Doctor."

"As in the crazy scarf guy? The one that gave you your scarf."

Winnie nods. "Yeah."

"For some reason, I never pictured him looking like that."

"He didn't. He has a different face everytime I see him."

"A diffe- Winnie what are you on about?"

"Waiting," she says. "_Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you. Whatever it takes or how my heart breaks, I will be right here waiting for you. Waiting for you._"

"Of course. You always have a song and never an answer. You and your Wiccan mysteriousness. Can you at least tell me what you said to him?" Molly wonders slightly annoyed.

"What did I say to who?" Winnie asks clearly confused.

"You just said something to the Doctor in another language."

Winnie tilts her head. "What did I say?"

"Promissiones sunt divisa, or something like that."

"Oh, it translates to Promises are divided."

"Well?" Molly asks. "What's that mean?"

The fourteen-year-old shrugs. "No idea."

* * *

He didn't return when he promised. Not that it surprised Winnie very much. Promises are meant to be broken. At least he returned.

* * *

"How long have we been traveling?" Winnie wonders as she steps into the console room. "I mean. It's like a few hours, or it can be, on Earth, if I choose it. But, like, how long have I been with you?"

The Doctor looks up from the scanner. "About four months or so. Why, do you want to leave?"

She just stares past him for a moment before she shakes her head. "No. Not yet. There's no telling if Mum'll let me come again. And two years is a lot to wait. Well," she says dragging the word out, "A year and a half. Though I'm sure she'll make me wait until my eighteenth birthday passes before I get a chance to travel again. I'm surprised she let me go this time."

The Doctor doesn't reply just circles the console pulling and pushing and pressing and tugging buttons and switches and toggles and levers. Winnie leaves nearly as soon as she came. She never enjoyed these awkward silences. How could anyone? And it was strange. He was only like this the past few days. She suspected he was going to leave her home soon. She was after all a minor according to Earth, her home planet. She had a feeling she wasn't the first to go traveling.

There's a soft knock on her door later that night… well, she says night.

"Come in, Doctor."

He pushes the wooden door open and smiles softly. "Ready for an adventure?"

Winnie stares at the words on the beige pages of the novel. Honestly, she doesn't even know what the novel is about. She hasn't really been reading she realizes. Her sapphire eyes just lingered on one word really. Smack dab in the middle of the page.

It never occurred to her what she was doing. What was she thinking, hopping into a police call box with a madman. She had hardly known him. He didn't even have a proper name; just "The Doctor." What kind of name was that? Winterlynn wasn't exactly a name just a season smudged into a name.

She'd met him all of thrice before she begged her mum to let her travel across time and space. And her mom never even batted an eye at the question. She wasn't exactly happy her child asked to run off with a complete stranger and an alien nonetheless. He was so much older than her. He had to be. She touched the pendant to her neck, and remembered her company.

"Doctor," she starts, "how old are you?"

"Um," he frowns. Does he lie or not? "Seven… hundred and ninety. give or take. At least I think, my brain's a little foggy at the moment."

She laughs humorously. "You don't even know. I'm traveling with a man hundreds of years old, through space and time in a police box. And mum didn't even bat an eye." She shakes her head, her hand dropping from the penticale. "Let's go on an adventure."

He smiles at her and holds out a hand that she clasps. They run into the console room together.

"Can I drive?" Winnie wonders.

The Doctor gives her that look that tells her the idea is crazy, but waves her over anyway and starts to explain everything.

* * *

It wasn't going to last, he should've known. It was never going to last. He was the Doctor. Danger followed him. He was the most feared man in the universe. Too many wanted him dead. Sooner or later, he was going to put Winnie in danger. He had just hoped it wouldn't be so soon.

Winnie, all things considered, was surprisingly calm for someone whose life was being threatened by creatures she'd never seen before.

"You know," Winnie whispers to the man beside her, "when I said I wanted a life altering adventure, this isn't what I had in mind actually."

"No to worry, dear Winnie," he whispers back. "I can talk us out of here."

She shrugs. "I'm sure they just need a little TLC."

He half chuckles as they continue down the hall surrounded by the strange reddish orange fire creatures.

"_But all the praying just ain't helping at all 'cause he can't seem to keep his self out of trouble_," Winnie hums beneath her breath. "_So he goes out and he makes his money the best way he knows how. Another body laying cold in the gutter. Listen to me_."

"I'm not sure now is the best time for that," The Doctor tells her with a hint of mirth to his voice.

"When I say run…" she leads off taking his hand. As soon as he feels the contact he can smell the freshness of rain and feel the cool salty sea breeze on his face.

It briefly crosses his mind, the conversation he had with her years ago. The very first one.

"_Don't go chasing waterfalls_," she sings pulling the Doctor from his reverie. He can feel the start of a rain. "_Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to. Know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all, but I think you're moving too fast._"

She doesn't have to say run as the rain starts to fall heavier (They were indoors! She made it rain indoors!), he just pulls her along swiftly towards the TARDIS. Neither one of them say anything until they're safely inside the doors of the police box, except for Winnie's thank-you to no one in particular.

Winnie laughs as she feels the TARDIS start to take off. "TLC," she repeats. "Best selling all girl group, second only to The Spice Girls."

"You could've gotten us killed," the Doctor tells her seriously.

She sucks in air through her teeth with a quick turn of her head. "No, I couldn't have actually. I also couldn't have killed them. It goes against my religion. I only made it rain around us, and only long enough to incapacitate them so we could escape. We'd be dead or dying right now if I hadn't. So sorry for saving your life. I won't do it again."

"Winnie, wait," he says as she storms past him. "I'm sorry. I was just angry I put you in harm's way."

She shrugs. "Big ol' universe, not everyone is gonna be nice. It was bound to happen anyway."

"One of these days, I'll take you to the moons of Jupiter. Specifically the market on Callisto, where they sell the greatest chocolates in the universe."

"I do love chocolate. It's like my heal-all, save-all food."

"You'll love it," he says with a smile.

* * *

Callisto was beautiful, the sky it held was dark navy, not nearly black. The other moons of Jupiter dotted the sky as they circled the gas giant. The bright yellows and oranges and reds contrasted sharply with the teals and ocean blues of the cloths above their heads in this particular section of the bazaar they had stopped at. Silks and satins hung around Winnie as she stepped into the stall. There was a small section of velveteen fabrics in the very back.

"Can I help you?" the shopkeeper, a lavender skinned creature asked her.

Winnie had been testing the texture of a piece white velvet, which turned out to be a cloak under further inspection.

"Just browsing," Winnie answers out of habit.

"Do you like it?" the woman asks.

Winnie shrugs. "It's very nice. My mother used to have a cloak similar to it. But I ruined it as a child."

"Winnie!" The Doctor calls.

A bright smile covers her face when she turns around. "Right here!"

The Doctor, who had stopped just outside the stall she was in. "Winnie you have to try this," he tells as he walks into the shop. He hands her a small piece of something wrapped in a coppery foil.

She unwraps it swiftly and pops the brown candy into her mouth. "Oh Goddess. That's really good."

"Eighty percent pure Justegeian cocoa and ten percent pure cocoa from the fields of Barcelona's South Capital."

"I have no idea where either of those are but this is really good chocolate."

The Doctor grins. "Did you find anything you wanted here?"

She glances around briefly, her eyes lingering on the white cloak shortly before she shakes her head. "Not really."

He eyes her suspiciously but motions for her to leave before him, handing her the parcel with the remaining chocolate as she pases him. He stays behind just long enough to ask the shopkeeper for whatever had caught his companion's eye. The white cloak is folded delicately and placed inside a box that shrinks to pocket-sized when it's shut.

With the little box placed securely in his pocket, he finds Winnie who'd paused at the end of the row of blue and teal stalls with her arms crossed.

"I swear," Winnie says shaking her head as she continues, "sometimes you get more distracted than Mum at a BOGO shoe sale."

The Doctor only chuckles as he leads them to the TARDIS.

He left her at home after that. Just dropped her off in her backyard with a smile and a promise of returning soon. The year was 1996, some time in June. Her mother had been waiting by the sliding glass doors a worried look on her face.

"How long have I been gone?" Winnie asked as she passed her into the kitchen.

"Just five minutes."

"He's on time then."

"How long have you been gone? Really?"

Winnie shrugs as she goes to sit down at the table turning on the little telly on the counter. "I dunno, four months I think, maybe five but that's pushing it."

Her mom nods before going into the den.


End file.
